Fuego

Cong Corrales .

WHY is this administration so afraid of the latest resolution of the United Nations Human Rights Council? Didn’t this same administration tell its citizens that if they haven’t done anything wrong, they shouldn’t be afraid of martial law?

This is exactly the same banana. If this administration, which has even taken a roadshow in Europe, is so proud of its stellar human rights record, then it should not be afraid of a review and accounting of its judicial processes to ensure human rights of its citizens.

Shouldn’t this resolution be the best platform where this administration can school the international community on what “best practice” is in protecting human rights?

As the loggers of yore used to say: “Let the chips fall where it may.”

However, the reaction of this administration, from the President down to its sycophants in barong, is very telling. Their statements on the UN council’s resolution betray their bravado, from threatening to walk out of the council itself to cutting diplomatic ties with Iceland, the state that sponsored the resolution.

Are they afraid of what the world will uncover? Are they afraid they will lose credibility on the world stage?

Take for instance the “militarization” of the Department of Education.

The recent suspension of 55 Salugpongan schools in Davao del Norte by Deped-11 on the recommendations and supposed findings of Gen. Hermogenes Esperon that these schools are training students to hold firearms, tells us how the military directly influences civilian government bodies.

Education is a basic right. When Deped-11 shut down the tribal schools, it betrayed its mandate. It pushes me to ask: Who runs the education department, anyway? While we’re at it, also ask how many generals have this administration placed in the supposed civilian governmental department?

Last week, a group of supposed lumad dealers, este leaders, were at the Philippine Consulate in California to sell their own version of the struggle of the indigenous peoples in Southern Philippines.

The delegation was led by a certain Joel Unad.

In a statement, the Pasaka Confederation of Lumad Organizations said Unad is an Obo-Manobo who claims a Certificate for Ancestral Domain Title awarded by the government in Marilog and Calinan Districts in Davao City.

“Yet, for over a decade he has traveled with the Eastern Mindanao Command across other Lumad tribes in Mindanao to entice Lumad leaders to file ancestral domain claims and to recruit them into joining paramilitary Lumad groups in the guise of self-defense,” Pasaka’s statement reads in part.

Why would they go all the way to the States when this administration has been hell-bent on showing it doesn’t care what the international community thinks of it?

Conflict management theory tells us that things will be worse before they get better. This is because the contradiction of opposing forces will have to peak before a new paradigm sets in — and then another cycle of contradiction begins. It is a continuous process only differentiated by the spiraling developments borne from each of the conflict resolutions.

So, I suggest we buckle up and do our share in achieving a new paradigm where human rights are respected and the rule of law properly implemented. Let’s fire it up, so to speak. Whether you’re a visual artist, a writer, a musician, a thespian, or a simple ordinary citizen. We have nothing to lose and all to gain. Fuego!